(Businessweek) – Corn declined after posting the biggest weekly gain in six as rain in parts of the U.S., the world’s largest grower, may replenish soil moisture needed for planting after drought cut last year’s harvest.
Corn for July delivery lost as much as 1 percent to $6.35 a bushel, ending last week’s 2 percent rally for the most-active contract, the biggest since the five days ended March 1. Futures were at $6.3625 by 10:33 a.m. in Singapore on volume that was 83 percent higher than the 100-day average for that time.
Snow and rain last week helped provide moisture in the driest areas of Iowa, Nebraska, southern Minnesota and South Dakota, Joel Burgio, an agricultural meteorologist at DTN, wrote in a report April 12. Farmers in the U.S. will probably plant 97.3 million acres of corn, the most since 1936, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said March 28. The harvest totaled 273.8 million metric tons in the year that began Sept. 1, the smallest since 2006-2007, the USDA said April 10.
“It’s just profit-taking” that’s pushing prices lower, Tetsu Emori, a commodity fund manager at Astmax Asset Management Inc. in Tokyo, said by phone today. “People should be focusing on weather conditions.”
Wheat for July delivery slipped 0.7 percent to $7.1475 a bushel, while soybeans fell 0.3 percent to $13.755 a bushel.
Soybean crushing by 12 companies in the Washington-based National Oilseed Processors Association, or NOPA, probably fell 2.1 percent to 137.645 million bushels in March from a year earlier, based on the average estimate of eight analysts in a Bloomberg survey. NOPA, which represents processors with 62 plants in 19 states, is due to release its estimates today.
In China, imports will probably fall to 58 million tons in the year beginning Oct. 1, from an estimated 59.2 million tons this year, according to a separate Bloomberg survey.
